Remk Virus (. Remk Files) – How to Fix & Decrypt Data

What is “Remk”?

Ransomware is a kind of virus that crypted your documents and then forces you to pay for them. DJVU (aka STOP) ransomware family was first revealed and analyzed by virus analyst Michael Gillespie">².

Remk is similar to other the same family: Foop, Lokd, Rezm. It crypted all common file types. Hence, users cannot work with the your documents or photos. Remk adds its particular “.remk” extension into all files. For example, the file “video.avi”, will be amended into “video.avi.remk”. As soon as the encryption is accomplished, Remk creates a specific text file “_readme.txt” and puts it into all folders that contain the modified files.

The feature of all ransomwares is that their performance is not instantaneous. No one can surely say how long encryption takes, and do this term specified in the command that launches ransomware, but one is clear – you can notice encrypted files with .something extension even before readme.txt file appearing.

This text asking payment is for get files back via decryption key:

The cryptography algorithm used by Remk is AES-256. So, if your documents got encrypted with a specific decryption key, which is totally and there are no other copies. The sad reality is that it is impossible to recover the information without the unique key available.

In case if Remk worked in online mode, it is impossible for you to gain access to the AES-256 key. It is stored on a remote server owned by the frauds who distibute the Remk virus.

For receiving decryption key the payment should be $980. To obtain the payment details the victims are encouraged by the message to contact the frauds by email (), or via Telegram.

Do not pay for Remk!

_readme.txt file also indicates that the computer owners must get in touch with the Remk representatives during 72 hours starting from the moment of files where crypted. On the condition of getting in touch within 72 hours users will be granted a 50% rebate, thus the ransom amount will be minimized down to $490). However, stay away from paying the ransom!

UPD 17.03.2020. .remk fraudsters increased max sum you need to pay (if you haven’t paid in 72 hrs) to 1200$, but in 72 hours user can pay them same 490$. That ocassion shows that ransomware distributors have a lot of payments done in 72 hours, so they can force users to choose : pay more or pay faster. But they still won’t give you any decryption key.

It is also quite bad idea to contact with fraudsters. They’d likely try to force you to pay, using social engineering methods or even to threat you with file deleting or  so. Also, knaves may add your e-mail to their database, and then sold it to another fraudsters. So, the best way for you is to read this article and get known how to remove this ransomware.

UPD 21.03.2020. .remk developers, likely repeating after .nppp snides started a massive e-mail spam. A lot of users from France, Italy, Spain and Germany complained about letters from “dead” e-mail adresses offering them to install an add-on for their browser, which would allow them to check coronavirus stats in their city and all aroung the world. After installing, this add-on really giving you access to stats, but you will also get “sleeping” .remk ransomware, which would encrypt your files one day.

I certainly advise that you do not contact these frauds and do not pay. The one of the most real working solution to recover the lost data – just using the available backups, or use Decrypter tool.

The peculiarity of all such viruses apply a similar set of actions for generating the unique decryption key to recover the ciphered data.

Thus, unless the ransomware is still under the stage of development or possesses with some hard-to-track flaws, manually recovering the ciphered data is a thing you can’t really perform. The only solution to prevent the loss of your valuable data is to regularly make backups of your crucial files.

Note that even if you do maintain such backups regularly, they ought to be put into a specific location without loitering, not being connected to your main workstation.

For instance, the backup may be kept on the USB flash drive or some alternative external hard drive storage. Optionally, you may refer to the help of online (cloud) information storage.

Needless to mention, when you maintain your backup data on your common device, it may be similarly ciphered as well as other data.

For this reason, locating the backup on your main PC is surely not a wise idea.